IT Organizations Shift Focus Toward the Fundamentals

With the economy stuck in a slow grind, the latest survey from The Society of Information Management (SIM) is focused mostly on business productivity and cost reduction. That’s not necessarily coming at the expense of other goals, such as the alignment of business and IT, but it does indicate that tactical issues are getting a lot more attention from IT leaders who are concerned about being able to demonstrate measurable IT values.

In fact, a new survey of IT executives from 195 different organizations finds that while business intelligence, cloud computing and enterprise resource planning (ERP) remain at the top of the application priority list, collaboration and workflow tools have jumped from the eighth slot in 2011 to number four in 2012.

One other area that is sure to draw a lot more attention in 2013 is staffing, which, despite virtualization and more IT automation than ever, continues to be the single biggest expense component when it comes to delivering enterprise IT. As such, the survey suggests there will be more efforts in 2013 to curb the rate at which salaries are rising, including a significant spike in offshore IT outsourcing.

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